An ‘Old’ Friend (Written 7/18/07)

Just a quick update about something special that happened today. A few days ago, I finally bought the last pieces of equipment I need in order to get the 4^th lab up and running (I needed network cable and plugs, which are quite expensive here). My year 13 class is doing a project which doesn't require me to be watching them all the time, so I was moving between doing my normal classes and finishing up the cabling in the 4^th lab. While I was moving between labs 1 and 4, I heard someone call my name from behind. I turned around and I saw Dennis and another young man I had never 'met' before. If you don't remember, last Friday I ran into Dennis and his wife Moira – who are missionaries from TN who were here last year. So today, when Dennis visited me at school he brought the person who first introduced us – his son, Cecil. Cecil found my website about a year and a half ago, when I started working at Chanel, and we have been in contact with each other kind of regularly through email. He's moving to Samoa (not as a Peace Corps Volunteer – more like a missionary) for a year to help a local church here. He wanted to join Peace Corps, but was unable to get Samoa as a choice – but where there's a will, there's a way. His mom, Moira, is Samoan – so he had a good reason for at least trying to get to this small island in the South Pacific.

It was definitely a strange experience meeting someone who I primarily met through email and yet I kind of feel like I know him. When he told me he would be moving to Samoa – he'll be living out in a village on Savaii called Iva – I gave him the contact info of some Volunteers currently living in that area. Just another way we volunteers go out of our way to help folks out. His experience will be a lot different from mine because he won't have the advantage of getting slowly acclimated to the culture nor the 2.5 months of language/culture training – so I can't wait to hear his perspective on adjusting to the Samoan way of life. I'll be meeting with Cecil, Dennis and Moira sometime next week – so then we can have a nice full conversation and I can find out what Cecil's expectations are while he lives here. The upshot to not being associated with the Peace Corps, for Cecil, is that he can drive and own a car – I'm so jealous! L8r.